French anxiously await competitiveness report

AFP, PARIS

France is in a state of alarm about its slumping ability to pay its way in the world, and a report on industrial competitiveness due today is expected to add fuel to a hot debate about the causes, solutions and effects.

The so-called “Gallois report,” named after its author Louis Gallois, is the latest in a list of reports commissioned by successive governments on what is wrong with the French economy and the urgent reforms needed.

Typically, they point the way to deep structural reforms which run counter to French habits: They tend to be short-lived time bombs, which are then locked away where they cannot upset the voters.

Gallois, the former head of the Airbus parent company EADS, was asked by the new Socialist government overseen by French President Francois Hollande to report on what is holding France back, as part of the preparation of a “competitiveness pact.”

Ministers have already rejected talk that what the country needs is a big and sudden “shock” to boost efficiency, saying instead that measures will be spread out over five years.

However, this time the government — facing a dilemma of dangerously overstretched public finances, anaemic growth and a huge trade deficit — says the analysis will not be buried.

The share of French industry in global trade has shrunk from 6.3 percent in 1990 to 3.3 percent last year as production costs have risen relative to those in other countries, and in particular to eurozone neighbor Germany where there are signs of concern about structural weaknesses in the French economy.

The government has set a target of eliminating during its five-year term the country’s 25 billion euro (US$31-billion) trade deficit, excluding a heavy deficit on trade in energy.

The competitiveness pact is shaping up to be a key initiative for the government to rejuvenate the economy as it is being forced to apply 37 billion euros in austerity next year to meet the country’s EU fiscal targets.

With the unemployment rate rising back to 10 percent, pressure has been building on the government to act.

Leaks and speculation about what the report will recommend have sparked heated debate in recent weeks.

Much of the debate is likely to focus whether to target labor costs, which are high owing to taxes levied employers and employees to fund France’s expensive welfare system, or to target innovation.

Gallois has already enraged unions by suggesting taking the labor cost issue by the horns and cutting payroll levies paid by employers. This would mean shifting part of the tax burden on to workers by increasing the so-called CSG levy, which helps fund the social security system, or increasing the VAT sales tax.

This is an old debate in France. The former government under then-president Nicolas Sarkozy failed to gather enough support for a similar measure which would have replaced the lost revenue with an increase in VAT.

Business leaders have piled pressure on the government, with the heads of 98 of the biggest French groups calling for a 30 billion euro cut in welfare charges paid by employers over two years, along with massive cuts in public spending.

According to the Le Figaro business daily, Gallois will propose reducing cutting employer payroll levies by 20 billion euros and those paid by employees by 10 billion euros over two or three years.

The revenue shortfall would be made up by a small increase in VAT, an increase in the CSG levy and pollution taxes.